Donna Lee v. Debra Jacquez

MEMORANDUM

Donna Kay Lee appeals the District Court’s denial of her petition for habeas corpus. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1291 and 2253, and we affirm in part, and reverse and remand in part.

The California Court of Appeal’s conclusion that Lee’s severance motion was properly denied by the trial court was not objectively unreasonable. A failure to sever does not rise to the level of a due process violation unless it creates a serious risk of “compromis[ing] a specific trial right of one of the defendants,” or of “preventing] the jury from making a reliable judgment about guilt or innocence.” Zafiro v. United States, 506 U.S. 534, 539 , 113 S.Ct. 933 , 122 L.Ed.2d 317 (1993). Lee has not shown how the joint trial violated her due process rights: as the Court of Appeal reasoned, “both defendants blamed unknown assailants for the murders and they both claimed to have themselves been victims of those unknown assailants.” Nor does Lee point to any specific trial rights that were violated as a result of the joint trial.

The California Court of Appeal’s determination that the trial court’s exclusion of battered women’s syndrome evidence under California Evidence Code §…